THE EDGE: The Edge previews The Hundred clash between Welsh Fire v Oval Invincibles with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
Welsh Fire v Oval Invincibles
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The Hundred hits Cardiff for the first time this season on Betdaq Betting Exchange as Welsh Fire host Oval Invincibles. These two put in two very impressive performances with opening wins this week, but there’s already a bit of negativity creeping into the tournament narrative. You get the feeling that the UK cricket media never really liked the Hundred, but the knives are out at the moment with four very one sided games in the opening week. You only have to look at the net run rate to see what a huge difference there is between the winners and losers from this week. Most of the crowd even left early when Northern Superchargers were getting thrashed at home.
The issue for most sides has been batting. Only Trent Rockets bat first and scored more than 140 as the sides all played their opening games. Manchester Originals only managed 86/8 against Welsh Fire and Birmingham Phoenix were all out for 89 against Oval Invincibles. You could say that these two batting line-ups come into this game not even tested yet. The Hundred is once again suffering with calendar issues – it clashes with Major League Cricket in America which are playing the players more and then we also have the Test series between England and the West Indies. If the ECB really want to make the Hundred successful, they need to stop scheduling international cricket along side it.
Obviously we had two very positive starts for these sides, and huge boosts for their net run rate which is always a factor for the playoff spots later on. With such small targets, we didn’t find out much about them however. Welsh Fire will be pleased to see Bairstow score 18 off 10, but he could have batted a bit longer. Oval Invincibles pretty much ticked every box in their game – we’ll find out more about these sides here!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
Sophia Gardens is a superb venue, but it being Wales we do have some weather worries from time to time. Last season we had a 40 ball game, and the first inning score was a whopping 94/3 (won). The other three games saw scores of 87 all out (chased), 152/6 (won) and 109/9 (chased). In 2022 scores were quite low too; 158/5 (won), 130/7 (won), 129/8 (chased) and 114/4 (chased). Scoring has been very good in the T20 Blast here this summer however; the last game saw 243/4 scored and three of the other four 20 over games saw 180+ posted.
RECOMMENDED BET:
As I said above, after two very easy wins we’re going to find out more about the two sides here. I see this being a very even game, and a lot will come down to the key players firing on either side. I do feel Welsh Fire need a lot from Jonny Bairstow, and on balance Oval Invincibles have a little more depth to their batting. Both sides obviously bowled very well in their opening games, and I’m happy to keep stakes small on this game – the value is with Oval Invincibles at 1.87 or bigger in my opinion.
The Edge Says:
One point win Oval Invincibles to beat Welsh Fire at 1.87 on Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/WelOva
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
We have yet to see the mid-to-late order from either side, so I would keep an open mind on supporting either side in that department. On paper, Oval Invincibles look a little stronger there however. We had a huge score here at the last T20 Blast game, and obviously this is a different format but scoring has been good in the Blast here this summer. I would definitely lean towards looking for trades on both batting sides.
